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美国市场营销论文定制Introduction – customization and market uncertainty
The rapid development and diffusion of newmanufacturing technologies in the lastdecades has produced a new pattern of productcompetition. Markets like consumerelectronics, personal computers and evenbicycles have been experiencing a dramaticrise in the speed of new product introduction,and a remarkable enlargement in the varietyof models offered. In some cases the speed ofintroduction of new products is such thatsome companies are willing to sacrifice theirown market-leaders by introducing newmodels to prevent competitors from launchingcomparable products (Sanchez, 1995).
The chairman of Sony summed this up byproclaiming “My job is to make our productsobsolete, before our competitors do”. Othercompanies, like National Bicycle Corporation,are already producing customized productsfor targeted customers (Kotha, 1995).
This movement is one of the consequences ofglobalization. If manufacturing companieswant to sell their products all over the worldthey have to be able to adapt them to theneeds of many different local markets.McDonald’s offers a good example of thiskind of strategy. In UK they sell strawberrypies while in Brazil you can find McDonald’sstores selling banana pies. Time Compressionis a key element of such a strategy (Wildingand Newton, 1996). Time Compression isrequired in all aspects of the business but afocus on decision making within the manufacturingLogistics area is of particular importance.
The greater the variety of products offeredand the greater speed of introduction of newones, the more likely it is that each customerwill be able to find a product that exactlymatches his/her needs. This will certainlysound new and attractive for customers usedto the conventional mass production environment,where low costs could only be achievedthrough restricted variety. Lured by this newapproach, customers are then induced to199
logistics Information Management
Volume 10 · Number 5 · 1997 · pp. 199–207
© MCB University Press · ISSN 0957-6053
Short-term strategic
management in mass
customized markets
Manoel C.P. Saisse and
Richard D. Wilding
The authors
Manoel C.P. Saisse is a Research Officer in Productionengineering at the Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia,
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
Richard D. Wilding is a Fellow of the WarwickManufacturing Group, University of Warwick, Warwick,UK.
Abstract
Explains that globalization and new manufacturingtechnologies have been generating a new kind of product
competition based on the ability of the producer to offerthe most suitable product for each individual market. Inthis new environment, the relationship between shorttermlogistical decisions taken within manufacturing andbusiness performance becomes increasingly strong. Thisrelationship can also be complex, owing to the largenumber of variables and trade-offs within the decisionprocess. Manufacturing managers must be aware of thestrategic consequences of their daily short-term decisionsbut they also need proper management tools to supportthis decision process. Discusses the concept of short-termstrategic management and how this can be used to guidethe development of manufacturing management tools formass customized industries. Argues that manufacturingmanagement systems can act as a link between short-term
decisions and the business strategy objectives.The authors would like acknowledge the BrazilianMinistry of Science and Technolo本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。